Russellville has an important special election on August 13th to vote on whether to allow a Walmart Neighborhood Market to be built at the corner of West Main Street and South Vancouver Avenue. I serve as one of nine commissioners on the Russellville Planning Commission. The commission studied and deliberated this particular application for months. I thought it might be helpful to the voters to provide some background information on this issue.

I voted in favor of rezoning the property to a planned unit development (PUD) to allow the construction and operation of a Walmart Neighborhood Market at this location. Let me briefly explain why.

Simply stated, I believe this new development would be good for Russellville and, after hearing the facts, I believe it would not detract from the surrounding neighborhood. The Planning Commission denied Walmart’s first application in August 2012 because the commission believed Walmart’s initial proposal left too many unanswered questions and failed to provide enough protection for the residents in the adjoining neighborhood. After Walmart made several changes and addressed many unanswered questions regarding traffic, lighting, noise, potential impact on property values, restrictions on delivery times, etc., the commission voted in December 2012 to recommend that the City Council rezone the property to a PUD.

Our city should embrace new businesses such as this as long as the business is ethical and operates using fair business practices. The West Main Street location is consistent with other retail/commercial developments; notably, our Kroger grocery store located less than a mile to the east. This new development will provide jobs, pay taxes and promote competition which is the backbone of our free market enterprise system. This ultimately results in benefits to consumers. If the voters deny this rezoning, it may possibly have a chilling effect on other new businesses that might otherwise consider locating here.

Personally, I have no vested interest in Walmart building this store in Russellville. I do not own or operate a business in Russellville nor do any of my family members. I own no Walmart stock. I received no encouragement or pressure from any Walmart representative or city official to vote for this proposal. Planning commissioners are citizens who are asked to serve and are appointed, not elected. I receive no pay nor do I have any political or personal agenda other than acting in what I believe to be in the best interest for Russellville. I believe the same can be said in regard to each of my fellow commissioners.

Let me assure you that the commission recognizes the importance of this item to Russellville and, in particular, to the concerned citizens located in the nearby neighborhood. We listened intently, and with an open mind, to both sides of the issue and performed our due diligence in regard to this application. As I told the attendees at our third public meeting, the commission strives to approach every issue based on facts, logic and sound analysis, then votes accordingly, even when such votes are made difficult because we have friends and acquaintances that live near this property and have made it clear that they are opposed to rezoning this parcel in any manner. If I believed that this store would decrease property values or detract from the nearby neighborhood, I most certainly would have opposed this development.

Even though the Planning Commission and City Council both voted in favor of this rezoning request, I certainly have no problem with referring this item to the voters. I fully support the right of the people to exercise their constitutional right to petition their government (the Russellville City Council in this instance) for a redress of grievances. Consistent with the Declaration of Independence, our City Council derives their just powers from the consent of the governed. The council’s action will either be affirmed or reversed by the will of the people on August 13th. That’s pretty American. However, before casting a vote, I do think it’s important for each voter to have as much information as possible.

The Planning Commission conducted two public hearings and a third public meeting to discuss this particular application. All of our deliberations were conducted openly and the meeting minutes are documented on the city’s website (”http://www.russellvillearkansas.org” www.russellvillearkansas.org) for all citizens to review. During our public hearings, understandably, many citizens were concerned about a variety of issues and spoke against the rezoning. I had many of the same concerns early in the process. Walmart representatives listened to the concerns and revised their proposal in a good faith effort to address those concerns.

One pivotal change Walmart made was to acquire additional property in order to relocate the proposed store to front on West Main, further away from the closest residence. Under the revised proposal, the rear of the store would now be approximately 500 feet from the closest residence. Additionally, the PUD approval would be granted with the requirement that the area behind the store remain a permanent green space to act as a buffer zone between the store and the adjoining neighborhood.

The PUD zoning classification provides much more protection and control for the city of Russellville than the normal zoning regulations. PUD zoning gives the city of Russellville input into the design of the building and complete control over the development.

After the commission voted (5-3) to recommend approval to the City Council, the council also held public hearings and, after much consideration and robust negotiations with Walmart, voted (6-2) to rezone the property to a PUD to allow the construction of a Walmart Neighborhood Market.

After all the deliberations and dialogue, some citizens in the adjoining neighborhood continue to oppose the rezoning while others are in favor of it. That is understandable and to be expected. However, given the fact that our public hearings focused on addressing concerns from the neighborhood residents, I was surprised to learn that they did not appear to be the primary source of the petition against the Walmart Neighborhood Market.

According to an article in The Courier dated June 9, 2013, the petition originated and was financed by a group known as Skyline Joint Venture LLC, the owners and operators of the Cash Saver grocery store located at the foot of Skyline Drive. The article further stated that, according to documents filed with the Arkansas Ethics Commission on May 16, 2013, the Cash Saver store owners paid $5,015 to 17 signature canvassers to obtain the necessary signatures to refer this item to the voters.

Again, my goal is to do what is best for Russellville. I would be more than happy to discuss the details of the Planning Commission’s deliberations on this issue with any interested citizen. I won’t tell you how you should vote, but I would be glad to try to answer any questions and elaborate on the reasons why I voted in favor of rezoning this property. My telephone number is listed in the phone book.

By the way, for those of you who did not attend the Planning Commission’s public hearings on this issue, you would have been pleased with the courteous and respectful manner in which our citizens conducted themselves during our meetings. Russellville is a great place to live and will remain that way regardless of the results of the referendum. I hope that many of you will make time in your schedule to voice your opinion at the polls.

What he fails to mention is that one of the Planning Commissioners made his decision (and expressed this at one of the meetings) by visiting a Walmart in NWA and interviewing customers as they entered the store to see if they "liked it in their neighborhood". That just demonstrates the incompetency of some of the members of that committee and the decision making process. They did not perform adequate due diligence or they would have identified flaws In the traffic study which fails to even consider impacts on the adjoining neighborhood. I can't wait I till the traffic flows past the Mayors house all hours of the nights he lives on the main street that will incur increase traffic.

And for the comment about that we "should embrace new businesses as long as they are ethical" let me see hasn't Walmart been involved in bribes in Mexico, used child labor and been fined for dumping hazardous materials in landfills. Sounds ethical to me. and finally I can assure you that if Walmart wanted to open a store on Skyline next to Mr Boyd's house he would have a differing opinion.

Well Dennis, thanks for giving it a whirl here anyway. I took the time to look up the center for community progress. Interesting stuff, hopefully people checked them out too. Of course, mostly Detroit and Chicago were the top of their story list on what they had done and were doing. I don't know, but it's a whole lot bigger than a local grocery store owner, which means only one thing.

I have received 8 phone calls from this bunch, and having responded the same thing to each, can see how some things work. He who has the biggest budget wins.

How many of the 9 planning commissioners live anywhere near Vancouver and Main?